India’s medical tourism ecosystem, showcasing International excellence coupled with major cost advantages, has seen growing interest levels from patients from the GCC and the greater Middle Eastern region, according to Apollo Hospitals, Asia’s foremost healthcare provider.

The Indian medical tourism industry is projected to reach $2 billion with an estimated 3,200,000 medical value travellers arriving in India by 2015, growing at an annual rate of 30 per cent, as per recent reports.

Recently, Emirates, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, had teamed up with Apollo Hospitals, to connect international patients with quality healthcare services in India.

“The proven Indian clinical competencies give India a huge competitive advantage. We have seen the number of patients visiting us from GCC region growing at a rapid pace.  In the last few quarters we have seen a remarkable increase from UAE, Qatar and Oman. Comparing global prices for medical treatment, India leads in the race for providing quality healthcare services at affordable prices. A heart bypass surgery in India costs $6,500, while in the US it costs between $30,000 and $80,000. This is a huge, untapped market, not just for therapeutic medical tourism like Ayurveda, but also for curative treatment,” said Dr K Hariprasad, CEO, Apollo Hospitals.

As part of the joint venture with Emirates Airlines, the patients and their attendants from 19 countries across Middle East and Africa can visit the hospital’s flagship locations in Chennai, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmadabad and Bangalore to avail specially formulated fares for round-trip flights on Emirates. 

Chennai headquartered, Apollo Hospitals has been accredited by Joint Commission International (JCI) US. The hospital’s Chennai unit performs the highest number of Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) cases with a very high success rate.

In early 2014, Apollo Health City, Hyderabad was bestowed the prestigious 'International Medical Tourism Award' for excellence in customer service, by the reputed International Medical Travel Journal, UK. – TradeArabia News Service